


From Out Of The Rain (And Into Eternity)

by nowhere_dawn_death_phan



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26142535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowhere_dawn_death_phan/pseuds/nowhere_dawn_death_phan
Summary: Jack Harkness has a choice to make. It’s not an easy one. But when is it ever?
Relationships: Gwen Cooper & Jack Harkness, Jack Harkness & Owen Harper, Jack Harkness & Toshiko Sato, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness/John Hart, Suzie Costello & Jack Harkness
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	From Out Of The Rain (And Into Eternity)

Jack Harkness stands in the rain, watching himself. It’s a wet September evening, a few hours after nineteen year old John Tucker was murdered. He watches himself talk to his murderer, laugh with his murderer. He looks up, seeing soon to be Torchwood Agent Gwen Cooper leaning over the edge of the carpark wall, hat in hand, hair hanging down over her face. He can’t see Ianto from here, but he knows where he is, huddled in the warm and dry of the Torchwood SUV, listening to the radio and already thinking of complaints to make when they get water all over the leather seats that it’s his job to clean. They have no idea what’s coming. They all seem so innocent.   
“Times up,” a voice from his left startles him, but he doesn’t turn his head away.  
“Just a few more minutes.”  
“Half an hour, that was the deal, remember? You get half an hour.”   
A hand touches his shoulder, the chest that it belongs to pressing against his back, their arms looping over his shoulders to meet at the front of his jacket.   
“Just a few more minutes.” Jack repeats, his voice breaking a little.  
“You can’t change it, you know?” The cockiness that used to come with those words has faded, it’s replaced by a sort of sympathy. He’s not sure if that’s better or worse. “There’s nothing you can do to fix it.”  
“I want to wait.” Jack says. “Wait until they leave. Then I’ll go with you. Wherever you want. Whenever you want.”   
“I think I can live with that.” A head rests on his shoulder, bumping gently against his. They’re both soaked to the skin, cold and shivering, all plastered down hair and heavy clothing. Jack has to keep lifting his hand to rub the rain from his eyes, just to make sure he doesn’t miss anything.  
He’s only allowed to do this once. That’s the deal. Just one moment to keep him going for the rest of forever. He half wishes he’d picked another one, a moment where they were all together, but they wouldn’t have been. Not really. Not without Suzie. This is as close as he’ll ever get, he supposes. Before it all went to shit. This is as close to happy as they really ever were. And it isn’t the same, because Gwen isn’t really there. Not as one of them. But things can’t be the same anymore.  
“Times up.” The voice in his ear says again, and Jack shakes his head. He wants to run after them, to hold all of them and kiss all of them and tell them that he’s proud, and to smile at Suzie more, and listen to Owen when he’s speaking, and tell Ianto how he’s feeling and show Tosh just how much he trusts her. He wants to look up at the car park and call Gwen Cooper down to stand with them and talk with them and be one of them. He knows that he can’t, that he has no idea what intervening would do to them and that isn’t fair, and they all seem so blissfully ignorant of how quickly everything is going to fall apart that it makes him want to scream. But he doesn’t. 

He just nods as the Torchwood SUV pulls away, and takes John Hart’s hand, and emerges from out of the rain.


End file.
